26 captives released after five years
Twenty-six captives of Somalian pirates are freed after five years. The vessel and its crew were kept off the Somali coast, until it sank. The hostages – from a number of East Asian countries – were then brought ashore and held in the bushland. They are believed to be some of the last remaining captives seized by Somali pirates in the mid-2000s. A spkesperson from Hostage Support Partnership talks about their condition.
We won’t know until I actually pick them up inside Somalia tomorrow. The guys are pretty ragged, very thin, malnourished. Several of them had to see a doctor today because they were unwell. [We don’t know if a ransom was paid] These are poor fishermen. The ship had no value, they had no insurance, and of course governments don’t want to be involved in these sort of negotiations either.